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Some dealers also hand pick instruments. I don't know how much this happens in the mid-range, but is fairly common in the high end pianos.

NAMM can be a great place to pick up deals on pianos you already carry, or to check out new pianos. There can be a lot to "checking out" a piano besides how it plays. Sometimes you have to crawl under the things and get dirty, but there's plenty to look at under there.

I don't know this to be true, but I would venture to say that a dealer probably has a pretty good idea about new lines he may be interested in before he goes to NAMM. Seeing the pianos on the floor at NAMM might just be the icing on the cake.

And while NAMM isn't the best environment for playing a piano, you can get a pretty good sense about a piano's potential by playing it there.